HW HELP DUE FRIDAY

MODULE 15 LECTURE NOTES POLITICAL SCIENCE

·

· uh which is the subject of the chapter fifteen in your Maglev text. And Of course this is the module fifteen lecture, which will be the last lecture. Um! About a part part me the first lecture of the last unit uh that we're going to be studying this semester. So

· just make sure you take good notes. I'm going to say very close to the Megabyte text. So

· excuse me hopefully. You read the text.

· It made more sense to you what I have to say, and then you get a one, two punch right, but take vigorous notes, and let's get started. I'm going to do a share screen.

· I can find that

· there it is.

· So. Um

· I like to uh

· begin by by emphasizing the rule of leadership and everything political and obviously

· Martin Luther King, a Reverend Martin Luther King, an ordained minister,

· was the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that led the Civil rights movement in the one thousand nine hundred and fiftys and sixtys in its quest to get African Americans and other minorities with primarily African Americans the same kind of equal treatment under the law

· that the law said they shouldn't be entitled to, but they were not getting.

· There was a kind of uh during the Post Civil War era all the way up until the post reconstruction, or all the way up to the sixties. There was a kind of uh by uh, bifurcated society where whites had one set of privileges in African Americans had another,

· and so he was the primary leader of that movement. Of course that movement included large numbers of African Americans. That also included large numbers of whites and other one

· Americans. Um! And it took a long time before that reached a point where the public was in favor of these changes, and that, of course, leads us to the one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four Civil Rights Act passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. But

· I I don't believe it would have happened, or at least it wouldn't have happened near as early as it did nineteen sixty-four, but it wasn't for this man martin Luther, king, very extraordinary leader, read any good a recent biography of him, and I don't think you can help but be

· uh impressed and inspired by his life.

· Um,

· what what is the civil? Right? Well, You know, we talked about civil liberties. What is civil, right? A civil right would be the right to be free of irrational discrimination. That is, discrimination based on some kind of bias or

· some kind of prejudice.

· The Us. Constitution ensures. The government does not discriminate against us that grants the national and State government's powers to protect the civil, our civil rights.

· There are different views on equality out there. Um, there's this view of quality of opportunity. I think that's pretty much. What most Americans believe is that no one based on their creed or their color, or their ethnic origin, or their nation of origin or their religion,

· should have any less opportunity than anyone else to participate in American society,

· and that that is what the quest for civil rights was all about getting people to a point where they all had equal opportunity to participate in, to compete uh, for the one for the the great uh privileges and of American life.

· Of course, if you're trying to measure this the way the government has. They've of course, divided us up into groups and back in the seventies under President Richard Nixon. They began a firm affirmative action programs which we'll talk about in a bit

· which were designed to help what groups who had been historically in this discriminated against or had been denied equal opportunity, or had been um. Another way of putting it had been, uh

· kept an inferior status. So affirmative action programs were programs set up by the Federal Government, designed to give benefits to people to help them get up to a equal position with other groups starting with African Americans, other minorities and women, including white women.

· Uh, your text talks about the rights of citizens officially awarding us citizenship and immigration services requirements. This is. This is what you have to do. When you want to naturalize yourself. You've come from another country. You have to be at least eighteen. If you want to become a citizen.

· Uh, you have to go. You have to meet all these tests,

· and after you've done that uh you take an oath of allegiance to the United States. It's kind of cool we have every uh, every year. We have more and more people who come here to our country, passing the citizenship test and and and then becoming full partners in the freedom and equality of the United States, affords us.

· This is an example of a naturalization ceremony here. Three people who are in a military who were, uh, who were had their citizenship applications expedited because they had had served in the United States military.

· You can see it's a very emotional experience. Those of us who are born here in this year in the in the United States we just take our citizenship in this great country for granted.

· But millions of people would love to come here, you know. So many do come here legally and illegally, because they understand what's going on here. They They understand that America is in a land of opportunity. Certainly we have plenty of problems, and we we certainly still have plenty of discrimination, but compared to what else is out there?

· People come here in droves and try to live. The American dream

· rights of us citizens. Well remember the States confirmed most our most important rights. They then those things revolve around Residency requirements, right

· rights of national citizenship, give you freedoms to travel, to position the govern progressive grievances to vote. I always think of voting as the greatest civil right, because it it is the way in which we equalize society is the way in which we hold others accountable, but may not be treating each other equally.

· It is the vote is so is that one right that has been fought for hardest over the centuries. And uh, and we've already discussed this earlier in the semester. But certainly that civil right of voting is A is a big, big, huge, right

· wartime rights can be restricted. Unfortunately, that when we're in shooting wars, I think I did mention this in an earlier lecture. When we're shooting wars,

· the governments will will tend to crack down on groups that they consider to be dangerous to the war effort or to the stability of the country while we're at war, and that is meant they that they have. They discriminated against groups. For that reason Us. Supreme Court in past years has allowed that

· more or less during wartime, and then, after wartime court decisions, kind of loosen things up. And remember during World War Ii large numbers of Japanese Americans, good American citizens.

· Uh, we're literally rounded up and put into camps for the duration of the war. Many of them lost their property, and they lost their freedom, and this was done with the idea that they represented a threat to America during the war with Japan. Well, that was, of course, nonsense, but

· it was upheld by the Supreme Court. And then, since then, Court cases have come to the Supreme Court that have challenged that, and the Ch in the course loosen that up. In fact, Congress actually had granted reparations to people who had

· served in those families of people who served in those intern camps.

· If you are seen as an enemy combatant in the war against international terrorism, that will You'll also find your rights restricted under the under the laws passed by the government, and in the Supreme Court decisions evaluating those laws,

· rights of lawful to a permanent residence, while non-citizens may be expelled or detained non-citizens, enjoy fundamental freedoms, However, speech, religion, due processes, sorted, et cetera non-citizens can be and I benefits in an unemployment, so it's a mixed bag if you're here

· permanently as he as a permanent resident. But you're a non-citizen. You still have a lot of fundamental rights, though you may be expelled or detained. If you're not a citizen.

· Um! And you could. You could have your benefits and unemployment denied as well. Uh, this is a mixed bag. It happens differently in different States, the Federal Government doesn't do a whole lot to uh to uh to enforce these laws. But clearly uh, if you are here

· uh as a permanent, resident, lawful, permanent resident. Uh, we would might call you agree. You might have what we call greed card status. You enjoy many of the rights that citizens have, but just not all of them

· uh racial equality. Well, I think we talked about this earlier. We talked about the right to vote, but just remember that.

· Uh, if you go back, what was the civil Warship right this down, if you don't know the Civil War was it uh fought in this country from the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one to one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, Abraham Lincoln was the President. He

· He engaged the eleven Southern States the Confederacy in A, in a war, to determine whether or not the United States would be one nation, or whether we we'd be divided up into two nations

· and the Union Army and the United States Government won that war. Of course Lincoln was assassinated after the war. Uh paid the ultimate price for doing this. During that war Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation,

· freeing the slaves,

· and during the Post Civil War era. This is this: The Us. Constitution was was uh was uh uh amended to allow for citizenship rights

· for African-americans former slaves,

· However, during that period as I mentioned, after reconstruction ends, and

· uh, in the late eighteen seventies from from from then on all the way to the nineteen sixty S. Discrimination and violence against African Americans, and sued in all the Southern States. This is a period of time we call the Jim Crow South, because of the so-called Jim Crow laws that existed in those states which were discriminatory against African Americans

· in one thousand nine hundred and thirty. The court started to hear challenges to Cigarettes segregation. Slowly but surely, the court starts to ship away at some of those segregational laws, and certainly executive actions by our Presidents in the land, the last staff of the twentieth century, specifically

· Harry Truman, uh segregating the army and bringing in African Americans in the United States Army, and things like that helped to move things a little bit along.

· But the turning point was what I mentioned with Martin Luther, King Martin Luther King was the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

· Uh, and he pushed for what something called nonviolent civil disven it. He got that idea from Mahatma Gandhi to use that to free the Indians, eh? India? Uh the British and Gandhi got it from reading the book works of American uh writer, Henry David Thoreau,

· and the whole idea is you you. If you see a law that's unjust,

· you you violate it, and then you pay a price for it for violating you. Go to jail, and by going to jail

· you draw attention to the unjust nature of the law. And this is why Martin Luther King and his followers, did they? They did a lot of peaceful protesting. But there were times when they broke laws they knew they would be arrested in jail for, and they actually wanted that, because they knew that the rest of the country could see them being in prison for just doing things that other people get to do,

· they would, there would be sympathy for them,

· is most one of his most famous writings was his letter from a Birmingham jail where he was talking about this very uh in phenomenon.

· So he was a brilliant leader, a brilliant strategist and tactician, and a very inspiring leader, and many, many, many, many, many millions, of people, white and black. Uh rose to his uh, his leadership,

· and by one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four a. The Congress, under the leadership of the President Lynd Johnson, passed the one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four Civil Rights Act, which put all kinds of laws into place in the in the one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four Civil rights Act. All kinds of protections in place I should say

· for African Americans, and from other minorities and um to be against a discrimination that had been taking place in American life. This is an example of a person who was protesting peacefully down in the South and had dogs literally sick on him. This is they're not uncommon at all

· uh the the tactics of the police in the Southern States were actually quite cruel.

· This is back in the sixties.

· Obviously. We don't want to forget about women's rights, women's rights. Of course

· the suffrage with the right to vote started as a State by State movement instead. Actually, the State of Wyoming granted women a right to vote before

· the us. Constitution was a granting all women the right to vote in one thousand nine hundred and twenty

· um in the Equal Rights Amendment, back in the late one thousand nine hundred and Seventys, when tried to push people, leaving in a very strong view of women's rights, push for a constitutional, and then it passed Congress, but it was never ratified by the thirty-eight of the fifty States to this day. It is not an amendment,

· but to the us Constitution. Some people lament that,

· uh, that, that women might have more uh protections than they now do. But if you take a look at it, since the nineteen seventies laws have changed it in the Federal level and of the States that have expanded women's rights.

· Uh, you know, in all areas of of human endeavor in the United American society, Are we there yet where they have perfect rights and are traded perfectly in all situations? No, but they're in a lot better shape. And then they were in the nineteen seventy S. When the equal rights in them it failed to be ratified.

· So Rights Act prohibited sex, that the sixty-four Civil Rights Act did prohibit sex discrimination, and that has been expanded in pre in in successive court cases, to include workplace, sexual harassment. So women and men

· are protected against sexual harassment in the workplace by for interpretations Of the sixty four Civil Rights Act

· glass deal ceiling still exists, but much progress has been made. What is the glass? Feeling is the idea that women have the right to work in workplaces, but when they get to a certain point they can't get any higher. There's kind of a ceiling there. You can see through it, but it holds you from going higher.

· It's still the case in many, in many corporations, but it's less of a case. There are more women and Ceos than ever before. There are women running a lot of colleges and universities,

· women and political live when women, governors, mayors, Uh, Mayor of Los Angeles is now, when the uh Governor of the State of New York is a woman, So women have gone come a long way since the nineteen sixty S. In terms of trying to break that glass ceiling, but in reality in the private sector, particularly in the corporate world. There's still plenty of institutions where it's still hard for a woman who reaches and gets into the executive class of of employees to reach it to the very top.

· Yeah, this is this: should tell you something. The males and females, if you take a look at it right now.

· Men and women

· are competing in education because we know college degrees do translate in a higher income later in life, and you can see that men used to have a huge advantage. We go all the way back to you know the middle part of the twentieth century. You can see how it sh. Then from about one thousand nine hundred and eighty, two onward.

· You can see that women started getting the upper hand, And so we now have more women graduating uh from college than men, and and that by the way, that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that trend is predicted to continue into the future. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

· I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. I would like to. I'd like to see it more even than that. But I think it's It's certainly a better thing than it used to be, where women were much less likely to be uh seen as going to college and graduating from college.

· So I guess your perspective on this would kind of depend on who you are, what where you're coming from, I guess right. It's that's certainly true about most things when we talk about civil rights.

· Obviously, uh it. It's been. It's been a very difficult since uh number of decades here in the south western part of the United States, because we have so many people living here, who are citizens or legal residents who are of Latino heritage, Hispanic,

· who are good citizens, good residents, really fine Americans, who oftentimes get mistaken for people who are here illegally, and can be mistreated for that reason. That's a that's a really tough situation, and that's not. That's not right.

· And so our our criminal justice system is doing everything it can, but probably needs to be reformed even more. Your text suggests to provide and to increase protection for Hispanic citizens and residents. Um here in the South West.

· Uh, but we also know that there are increasing numbers of people coming here from the Uh Western Hemisphere from south of the border, all coming from places like Mexico, all the way through Central America and South America.

· Uh, coming here illegally, and the increasing numbers in two thousand and twenty-two huge number came in, and of course, that that creates a a lot of stress. It creates stress at the border with our our border agents with our with our State Department, with all the asylum requests.

· So it's When when we when we're we're facing a lot of illegal immigration that kind of mixes things up in terms of trying to sort out the rightful civil rights of people. Um! And you know who should be treated in what way? So let's just suffice to say

· that in Arizona, in California, in particular State legislatures have expanded the rights and and have expanded the privileges of people living here in the State uh without without documented status and other States. Haven't done it as much as California and Arizona has.

· Uh, but we still have a lot of work to. Obviously this is a very hot issue. Going into the two thousand and twenty-four Presidential election. I expect the immigration issue

· legal and illegal, will be a top issue that America will have to contend with

· and uh in between now and then. Uh, hopefully, we'll have action by our Congress, which will uh create change, Change the immigration laws in such a way so as to kind of modify all people involved Um,

· but and provide increased protections for those people who are law abiding in want to live here and contribute to our society. We,

· in a just way.

· Now let me just say this. There's one other thing you should know about the immigration, whether immigration is coming legally or illegally, we we kind of need immigrants right now. We really do. And the reason, as you learned earlier, that our birth rates of Americans of all races

· and creates our birth rates are just lower than they've been in a long time we're not a replacement level. So at some point in the near future we're going to start shrinking unless we get more. Have more babies, and or have more immigrants. So at the very time when we're facing this controversial issue, having people come into our country, and large numbers illegally at the same time we need immigrants.

· So, trying to sort this out, I'm trying to come up with the national policies that are fair to the people who come here, but also fair to everyone else,

· is a big political challenge that our Government is facing so hopefully between now and two thousand and twenty-four the Presidential election, or hopefully, our President, uh the Republicans, who are now controlling the House Democrats, who still control the Senate only they'll get to knock their heads together to work out some compromises to give us new immigration laws which work better for our country.

· Uh Asian Americans Obviously, uh, do face discrimination as well, and have historically face discrimination just like Latinos, just like in their African Americans, but in different contexts and different times. Uh, certainly, if you go back to the nineteenth century.

· There were laws passed in this country that that singled out Chinese people keep them from coming to the country,

· and that changed in one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, and one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five immigration. Naturalization Act, like that by Congress, pretty much opened up legal immigration from all parts of the world, including Asia.

· And since then this is, when are the diversity of this country increases? You want to know what this used to be? A largely white country with about ten percent African American population. That's the way it was when I was a kid

· in the early sixties. Um, Since the Immigration Nationality Act has been passed. We've taken in a huge number of legal and illegal immigrants, and so our country has become far more diverse than it was. We have people here from virtually every country on the planet. In fact, right here in Southern California, we can say that.

· So it's an interesting time in American history for sure, and I already mentioned the Japanese Americans face some really horrible discrimination

· during World War two because they were singled out and put into camps because they were thought to be potential enemies of the State.

· Um, which couldn't have been farther from the truth. They were some of our finest citizens in in Kieran, California is a very sad and tragic episode in American history.

· Obviously native native Americans are in their own category because most of them live on reservations

· that have special status under Federal law. They're t technically they're not even part of the United States. Technically they have their own legal jurisdictions.

· Uh most of the native American uh

· tribes do um. And but those reservations, of course, for the most part, were not places where they wanted to be, and they certainly didn't want to be put on reservations, because that meant that they were having their other lands taken from. So you have to understand that the idea that

· native Americans um are in reservations, and they have some kind of control over their circumstances. There's only a partial truth. The real reality of it

· is that they had most of their lands taken from them, and they were forced onto these reservations.

· They are not doing well. I may have our native American brothers and sisters

· are struggling. In fact, they're among the poorest people in America, which is a very sad thing. Obviously, there's been a political movement since the sixties, the American Indian movement, and to try to increase the uh, the success of native Americans to try to get them on par with everyone else in terms of equal rights,

· if they still are suffering from poverty and high unemployment. I think the text does a really good job of summarizing the plight of our native American brothers and sisters.

· Excuse me, I would say this, that there are plenty of examples of successful native Americans who've done well. Some of the native American tribes.

· The reservations that they were forced on to actually ended up having valuable assets.

· Beach fronts up in the Northwest oil uh The Cherokee uh in Oklahoma ended up getting a lot of oil. So some seven, some native American tribes have done, have been able to do well,

· and others have done have not done so well. So um we do. There is a There is agency. The Federal Government that is designed to assist

· the American in Native Americans. That's the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the

· Um. And so they do get help from the Federal Government, from the taxpayer. But if you've ever been in on Indian reservations as I have. Uh they're there. Some of them are in really bad shape, and uh it's sad tale Hopefully our country can find a better way to treat them uh and take care of them

· and give them the same kind. You know the real. The real issue is

· equality of opportunity. I mean, are you gonna have the same opportunity on a native American reservation as you are maybe fifteen miles away, you know, in a non native American reservation. If you're a native American and native Americans argue that they won't that they will be discriminated against, and they won't have the same opportunities, and so

· work needs to be done, particularly in the States, with high numbers of native Americans.

· Constitutional causes, equal protection. Due process clauses are the key clauses in the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection clause gives us equal protection under the law in all fifty States. So at limits what the State Government can do to us it limits what the Federal Government can do to us. It gives us protection

· under the law, no matter what, under State and Federal law,

· due process clause in the Fifth Amendment. Also, when it's the National Government what they can and can't do to us, we are entitled to due process under the law, we we get at least a habeas corpus rights, and we get at least a court hearing. Anything is is brought against us, and that is a That is a very important

· uh important uh right.

· And of course there's a prohibition on re Unreasonable classifications under the law as well.

· Rational basis tests a suspect classification and strict scrutiny test. You should understand this, that constitutional classifications,

· or all about the how the Us. Supreme Court, when they hear a case involving some kind of civil rights dispute. What test do they use to be able to make some kind of heads or tails out of it out of a civil rights plane. So obviously,

· if you, if race is involved in anything in any case that comes to them, that is

· application, which means it gets strict scrutiny by the Supreme Court. They focus like a laser on it and take it extremely seriously.

· Um quasi suspect. The classifications also get heightened scrutiny in your in your text list those classifications, poverty and age, sexual orientation can can trigger these kinds of tests.

· And uh, just remember that when the Supreme Court here's cases they only hear about eighty-five to one hundred cases that are potentially thousands. So they're looking for cases like this that are high priority to them, where they see, uh, where they need to apply strict scrutiny or heightened screening

· uh, to protect fundamental rights. And of course, when they make a decision

· about one case that's going to make a decision about all all similar cases across the country. It'd be it when Supreme Court makes decisions that oftentimes has the effect of expanding rights under the law,

· some of the Supreme Court decisions of the nineteen fifty S. Which were codified by the voting Rights Act in one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five turned into law pro division on denial of voting rights based on race or color Forbids Threats or intimidation of anybody trying to go

· and made Federal marshals available for enforcement of the polls. I mentioned this when we talk about voting a few weeks ago. But this was a huge change in the nineteen sixty-five. Even though African Americans technically could vote in the South, they were systematically discriminated against and at the voting booth. They they had to. They had to.

· They had to pay poll taxes they had to. They could be intimidated by by people who tried to scare them. They're all kinds of ways in which they were kind of dissuaded from voting the one thousand nine hundred and sixty-five voting rights act by Congress uh really changed all that it really would give teeth

· to the to the right of voting in in the South for African Americans, I might add, for whites also benefit from that as well, but it was primarily done for the African American Committee, which had been discriminated against

· a systematically for better than one hundred years.

· These are the major civil rights laws that you need to be aware of. I I I've just listed them here, so you can study them and just kind of memorize them fifty fifty-seven, with a Federal crime to prevent persons from voting in Federal elections,

· though even they it was a federal crime, it still wasn't enforced as much as it is today. Civil Rights Act was past, and sixty board talked about that talked about Voting Rights Act Asian discrimination and employment acting sixty-seven. For how this job discrimination gets workers job that it's forty, three, sixty-five, and prohibits mandatory retirement. So

· that is the piece of Federal legislation that created civil rights for middle age to older people

· when she reached the age of forty. You get protections in your workplace for being arbitrarily fired, or being forced to go into retirement.

· And of course the Fair Housing Act was another big one one thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight, which prohibited discrimination on basis of race, color, religion, or national origin, and say or rental, most housing.

· So these are all major improvements in American life by the law, by our Congress in the one thousand nine hundred and sixtys, and all all through the fifty S. And sixtys

· idle, nine of the education in one thousand nine hundred and seventy-two for the for the Civil Rights Act, of sixty-four prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, and any educational program receiving federal assistance. The Rehabilitation act of one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three required the recipients of Federal grants, greater than two thousand five hundred hire and promote qualified handicapped individuals.

· Their housing act amendments of eighty-eight gave the department of housing and urban development, authority, prohibit housing biases against the handicap and families of children, the Americans, with disabilities that in one thousand nine hundred and ninety prohibited discrimination based on disability, and it requires the facilities to be made accessible of those with his disabilities,

· and the one thousand nine hundred and ninety-one civil rights that required that employers justify practices that negatively affect the working conditions of women and minorities, or show that no alternative practices would have a lesser impact and establish a commission to examine the glass ceiling. If one for me

· coming executives,

· i'll turn our attention to the Brown versus Board of Education decision. That was nineteen uh fifty-four, and that was the uh more, of education of Topeka, Kansas against the family whose child was in a public school, and to be good Kansas, and felt that they were not getting an equal opportunity for an education. There

· decision was based on the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause, and this instituted uh school discuss segregation. Basically, the Supreme Court found that the

· the School Board of Topeka, Kansas, had systematically created black school schools and white schools in the white schools were much better schools

· Then the black schools were, and Brown argued that that's not fair. That's that we should, that you should not have inferior schools for people based on some suspect classification.

· The Supreme Court agreed, and said that school should be segregated immediately, so that you could have white and black students all together in the best schools, and it took a long time. But over a period of the next few decades, schools across the country, where they had been

· specifically set up to be segregated, were desegregated and integrated.

· Excuse me,

· Civil Rights Act of one thousand nine hundred and sixty four places a public Kim Accommodation Civil Rights Act of one thousand nine hundred and sixty four, the title six Enforcement.

· Basically,

· If the If your school district is taking money from the Federal Government, and most all do. Then they can. They. They fall under the Civil Rights Act because they cannot practice discrimination. If they're taking those funds. Right?

· A civil right to act also created the employment offered people employment, opportunity, commission. So if you feel like you've been discriminated against, you can go to the State uh uh Opportunity Commission, but you also can go to the Federal Eeoc.

· We have an office here in California, and you can file a complaint against your employer, or against whoever is discriminating against you. Uh, and you have them do an investigation, and they may or may rectify your situation. And of course, the fair housing active amendments. We're also put into place to help us have equality when we go out,

· and equal opportunity. When we got to buy a house or to rent an apartment We

· um! How did we get? How did we get for ordered busing? Well remember what to get all those public schools

· desegregated the only way you could do it, since some of the schools were in in towns parts of the town, which were predominantly white and other, for in towns of predominantly African American they literally many communities, had to bus kids black to one side of the town whites to the other, so they could be integrated together. That was very unpopular. So why it took a long time

· integrate schools in this country. Because people in both neighborhoods didn't like that they didn't want their kids bust all the way across town

· uh to be Well, some did, and some didn't, but but it was not a popular decision with the majority. Let's put it that way.

· That brought up this idea of dictionary versus de facto desegregation that in the courts have basically allowed this if this, if the School Board District is not consciously and not specifically and not intentionally, reading a school system where there are schools that are segregated.

· But if this happens more or less naturally, that in some communities you have the distribution of people. As long as those schools are equal.

· Uh, that's that's okay. But if they're not, if they found, if they find that they're not equal, and they can be forced to be uh reintegrated, and let's face it. They're They're still situations in this country where school boards are. Pride on the School board are probably engaging in some kind of de jury that is, by the law

· a segregation that would be unconstitutional under our laws. If the School Boards cannot, when they said, decide where the schools are going to be and who's in the schools they cannot

· allow. They cannot intentionally segregate schools based on race. That is, that is a completely against the law.

· Affirmative action protests. Well, yes, affirmative action. Uh, you know people who support it. People are opposed to it because affirmative action is about government. Do do dooling out benefits to people who've been historically discriminated against to try to get them up to the starting blocks so they can compete with everyone else,

· and when you are giving benefits to one, but you're not giving to another. Some people believe that that is discrimination in itself.

· Um,

· affirmative action programs target the consequences of discrimination.

· Critics call it reverse discrimination. Certainly. The University of California Regents versus Baky case in one thousand nine hundred and seventy-six,

· the Supreme Court declared that if you create a racial quota, and you say only certain numbers of people of of of different groups can get into a a college university. That is, that is de facto discrimination. That's that's against the law.

· So

· I know the text is a little confusing on. So let's be very clear about it if you, if if this, if your affirmative action program is a quot, and you have to have X amount of people in this group to this group. Get this job or get to go to this college. That's illegal as a bakiy decision,

· but that didn't say that you couldn't take race into account,

· and as late as two thousand and three. The Us. Supreme Court reiterated the fact that even though you can't create quotas, you can take race into account, the diversity is a cool, compelling interest when a school assigns a seats to A,

· to a uh people, to a a university, or when someone has a job or a contract to offer, you can take you. You You can offer affirmative action program if it doesn't go as far as creating a racial quota.

· And of course all sorts of state policies are in flux

· here in California. Uh, by by by by initiative, we we eliminated affirmative action in public programs like university admission and contracts and things of that nature. Um, it's still it's still legal for the uh

· for uh

· Federal government here in the State of California. Do this. The Federal agency still use affirmative action.

· But the public agencies no longer do that when they're hiring, and their decisions for admissions and universities. Texas did the same thing. Florida the same thing. But other States have allowed for, like Michigan, still allows for uh affirmative action and public admissions uh in two thousand and twenty, two two thousand and twenty-three. The Us. Supreme Court is going to hear a case. So if it's going to hear it's it's one of those few that they hear, so they obviously think it's important.

· They're going to hear a case from an Asian, a woman who is challenging but

· Harvard's uh uh diversity policy. She's arguing. She's going to argue that Harvard's diversity policies of trying to recruit non whites into

· uh uh non whites into the university admissions, has actually had a discriminatory effect, not not on on Asians and whites as well, but for our principal concern is agents. She makes the case, I think that,

· based on test scores and Gr. Our uh S. A. T. Scores and grades that lot of Asians are not allowed into Harvard, even though they might have better grades and better scores, and some of the other minorities who are let in. That's going to be a very

· big case You might want to watch, because that will have. If if the Supreme Court says you can, you know the Supreme Court says, and i'm say, will it? Well,

· they're conservative, and so they might, if they say, hey? Uh! Having some kind of diversity program, or some kind of program to encourage minorities. If that has the effect of discriminating against the Uh groups,

· because you find that some people are getting in at lower levels and others, and it goes against the merit that's been earned. They may very well in, and all affirmative action programs across the country, and that would have a very big impact on the American life. Uh, in, particularly in getting into colleges and universities.

· So will people like, if that's not going to take place. Uh during this two thousand. That's not going to be decided until the decision will not be publicized until I believe, June of two thousand and twenty-three. That's something. If you're following the new, you might want to take a look at you might want to Google that look it up.

· Why, I could go on and on there so much in this uh civil rights Chapter that's worth reading and discussing. It's a huge issue. Obviously civil rights are politically very important to people. Um,

· we didn't even talk about abortion as a civil right. But remember, many women see abortion rights as a civil right. But

· us Supreme Court said no. It was in two thousand and twenty to know. It is not a simple right. It's something the States can determine to be a civil right within the States. But in the in the Dobbs cases some are the Dobs. Us Supreme Court overturned

· the the uh uh President of Roby, we in one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three,

· and said, No, this is there is no national right it to be found in the Constitution for abortion. This is something that the States can set up as a right, but each they can go their own way. And since that dobs the ruling in the summer of two thousand and twenty-two. Some States have allowed for abortion in some States Have not California passed

· in the November election the California passed, and uh initiative number one which, in trying abortion rights into the California Constitution, several other States did that, and other States are going to that, while other States, through their legislatures, made abortion essentially illegal.

· So it's a mixed bag all across the country. And so you're going to hear more and more argument about this should abortion be a national right under the Constitution or not,

· and the only way that could happen is if the Congress takes a uh Congress passes a lot and makes it a right or the public uh demands a constitutional amendment which would take a two-thirds vote by Congress in a three quarters of the States to ratify. That's not likely in the near future.

· Uh. So it looks like this mixed uh application of abortion rights across the country is going to be. We're going to be dealing with for the time being.

· Excuse me,

· I have to say that you know i'm up getting getting getting up there in the years. I I was a kid in the one thousand nine hundred and sixtys,

· and here we are in two thousand and twenty-two, and I can tell you the differences like night and day. But yes, I think it's clearly obvious that in some cases, maybe, like you know, the arrests of people who've been

· uh, Who' been accused of crimes. I think there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of trying to create a more just an equal society. But clearly America is a lot better position today. Americans of all different races and creeds and ethnic backgrounds and men and women.

· This is, if we're a more equal society by a long measure than we were just fifty, sixty years ago, and I was like to say, you know. Try to focus on the positive, because you can certainly find plenty of examples

· that are not that that would probably leave us uh

· wanting.

· Um,

· but It's a it's an ongoing political discussion. It's an ongoing political debate in American political life,

· and I. My experiences in the classroom with my students at civil rights issues are among the most

· interesting to them, and I'm probably among the most interesting to you, and I can encourage you to take more classes and political science. Uh, we have a especially course called Um poly sign nine constitutional law that emphasizes the history of us Supreme Court cases

· that deal with civil rights, and it's a fascinating course if you have any interest in it. And of course, where you go to transfer institutions Uh, there are all kinds of courses and political science departments that talk about that, that where you study uh civil rights, movements and political movements designed to expand civil rights.

· So if you're interested in those things. You might also consider me a political science, Major Minor. If you have interest in those things, give me, drop me a line, or give me a call during my

· a campus office hours. I'd love to talk to you about it and encourage you to do that.

· Okay? Well, that's it for me today on the Civil Rights lecture. Um!

· I will. Next time we will be going over the module Sixteen lecture. If you again have any questions about this, or let me provide you with more examples,

· anything whatsoever you might need. Just drop me a line, Ego. It'll be Cc. To you, or call me during my campus office hours. Five, six, two, nine, three, eight, four, six, two zero. I'd love to help you any way I possibly can

· until next time. Take your.